the reorganization of the roman priesthoods at the

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The Reorganization of the Roman Priesthoods at the Beginning of the Republic Author(s): Jesse Benedict Carter Source: Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. 1 (1915/1916), pp. 9-17Published by: for the University of Michigan Press American Academy in RomeStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4238497Accessed: 11-03-2016 22:22 UTC

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THE REORGANIZATION OF THE ROMAN PRIESTHOODS

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE REPUBLIC.

JESSE BENEDICT CARTER.

T HE remarkable conservatism of the ancient Roman and the extraordinarily logical

character of his mental processes are perhaps our two most valuable assets in

the task of the historical reconstruction of the early history of the City of Rome. When

that history comes out of the mists of the so-called 11 legendary period n and when our

documents begin, - first in tombs and tufa, later in annals and chronicles - we are con-

scious at once that, so far as the organization of the state religion is concerned, we are

confronted by certain curious anomalies almost in the nature of contradictions, which seem

entirely out of place and which distort and change what would otherwise be a perfectly

logical system.

The executive control of the organized state religion is in the hands of the College of

the Pontiffs. This college consists primarily of the Pontiffs themselves, originally three in

number, and, in a broader sense, of the Pontiffs, the Rex Sacrorum, the Flamines and

the Vestal Virgins. But there is one peculiar thing about the Pontiffs themselves. They

are not organized like other colleges, so that the individual has a certain voice. On the

contrary, he exists merely as a counselor to the Chief Pontiff, who has all power and

who acts for the entire college. In a word, he is the college. On the other hand, when

we come to questions of rank and precedence, we have the anomaly that this great priest,

the Chief Pontiff, who has extraordinary powers over all the members of the college, has

a rank inferior to four of his entire subordinates. In the most solemn sacrifices of the state

his place is usually fifth.

These and various other facts of a similar character prove beyond peradventure

that the whole system as we find it in the Republic is a readjustment of previous and



10 JESSE BENEDICT CARTER

very different conditions, and that it represents a compromise between two radically dis-

tinct social organizations. These facts have, of course, been noticed by scholars, and

here and there in parentheses and footnotes allusion has been made to the earlier condition

of affairs. But, so far as my knowledge goes, no attempt has been made to treat the

matter on a large scale ' and to draw a more or less complete picture of the original

condition. It is the intention of this article to produce such a sketch, but before entering

upon this task we should understand that such a sketch is at best a hypothetical recon-

struction - such as are common in the field of natural science - that it cannot be proved

point for point and that the test of it lies in the extent to which it explains later con-

ditions. The probability of its truthfulness increases in direct ratio to the illumination

which it casts upon the dark spots of the early Republican organization.

That the Roman Republic was preceded by a Kingdom is beyond the shadow of a

doubt, even though the historical events of the Kingdom and the names of the kings

themselves are involved in the greatest uncertainty. We also seem to be justified in as-

suming a twofold division of the Kingdom, a primitive period relatively free from foreign

influence and a later period of considerable but not overwhelming Etruscan influence. It

is not improbable that the office of the king was very much the same in both periods,

but it will be wiser for us to confine our discussion to the Later Kingdom and to leave

the pre-Etruscan epoch severely to itself.

The Rex, therefore, of this Later Kingdom, was the father of the people. He

was the possessor in himself of the whole n Imperium ", that sacred possession which

was forever fought for in all subsequent time and which was later divided under or-

dinary circumstances into an infinite number of pieces and loaned, not given, to a number

of individuals 2, and which had its own sacred seat in the bosom of the senate. He

was not merely the head but the incarnation of all the activities of the state in both

military and governmental affairs and in that large and important world of the Gods,

which, in this connection, is our chief interest.

Religious life and religious consciousness in the days of the Kingdom were in the

naturalistic stage where interest was centered in the physical question of fertility and pro-

creation, and where the strongest instinct was that of physical self-preservation. The

simple old-fashioned theory of the king as the father of the people and the queen as

the mother, a theory so popular fifty years ago, is coming into its own again, after a

temporary defeat in a campaign of pseudo-learning. The king was not only the executive

head of all the religious activity of the state but he was in addition busied with special

1 A small sketch was attempted by me, Actes du

IVe Congres International d'Histoire des Religions, Lei-

den 1913, pp. 141 f.

2 VARRO, ap. Gell. 13, 12, 6: consules et ceteri qui

habent impexium.



THE REORGANIZATION OF THE ROMAN PRIESTHOODS 1

priestly functions. These two sides of his religious life, later so carefully distinguished,

were doubtless inseparable at first, and the realization of the distinction arose only at

the moment when the political king ceased to exist. The deities to whom the King and

the Queen were devoted in the solemn sense of special priests were Janus and Juno. It

seems strange that the eyes of scholars have been so blinded by the glory that blazed

later from the throne of Jupiter and Juno that there have been so few of them able to

see that the pair Jupiter-Juno is really Greco-Etruscan and that Juno was originally paired

not with Jupiter but with Janus. No clearer instance of this primitive connection of Janus

and Juno can be found than their relation to what seems to be in many respects the

most primitive of all the social divisions of Rome, namely the Curiae. Here the Rex

and the Regina are constantly active, and especially in connection with Janus ', Juno 2,

and the kinswoman of Juno, the earth goddess Tellus 3. The sacrifice on the Kalends

of October, a day sacred to Janus, at the Tigillum Sororium was made to Janus

Curiatius and Juno Sororia 4. But the King and the Queen were active also on the

occasion of the two great annual festivals of the Curiae. At the first of these festivals,

the Fordicidia on April 15th, the Queen (the Virgo Maxima of our historical accounts),

accompanied by the Vestals, performed a primitive and curious ceremony. The second

of these festivals, the Fornacalia, was to be sure, feriae conceptivae, but it ended

always on February 17th, and it is interesting to notice that on this last day (Feb-

ruary 17th) it is the King (of course the Curio Maximus of our historical accounts)

who presides.

But Janus and Juno were associated not only on October first in connection with

the Curiae but also on the Kalends of every other month as well. " Romae quoque

Kalendis omnibus, praeter quod pontifex minor in curia Calabra rem divinam lunoni facit,

etiam regina sacrorum, id est regis uxor, porcam vel agnam in regia lunoni immolat, a

qua etiam lanum Iunonium cognominatum diximus, quod illi deo omnis ingressus, huic deae

cuncti Kalendarum dies videntur adscripti " 5. It is interesting to note here the activity

of the Regina and the reference to the Regia. One of the most difficult problems con-

nected with the King is the question of where he lived. The tradition of the residence of

the various kings is absolutely without value, except as an added proof of the poverty of

Roman imagination6. It seems likely that the King lived in the Regia, the House of the

King (Domus Regia), and certainly the headquarters of his activity were there. It was

1 Cp. lanus Curiatius, Liv. 1, 26, 13; DION. HAL.

3, 22; FESTUS, p. 297; PAUL., p. 307; and, in general,

CARTER, Rel. Life of Ancient Rome, p. 1 1.

2 DION. HAL. 2, 50, 3; FESTUS, P. 254, 25; ep.

64; cp. BOTSFORD, Rom. Assemblies, p. 9; ROSCHER,

Lex., 11, 1, 596.

3 OVID. Fasti, 4, 634; LYD. de Mens, 4, 49; Wis-

SOWA, Rel. u. Kult., Ed. 2, p. 192.

4 Cp. FESTUS, p. 297; DION. HAL. 3, 22, and the

FASTI ARVALUUM, C. I. L. 12.

5 MACR. S. 1, 15, 19.

6 Cp. JORDAN, Top. 1, 1, 155 O.




in the Regia on January ninth that the King sacrificed a ram to Janus'. It was probably

in the Regia that the mysterious ceremonial took place when the Queen with the Vestals

came and asked if the King was watching: nam virgines Vestae certa die ibant ad regem

Sacrorum et dicebant 11 vigilasne rex? Vigila! n 2. But there were also other seats of his

activity. Three times a year he performed a sacrifice in the Comitium, namely on Feb-

ruary 24th, March 24th and May 24th. It has been suggested that the site of these

sacrifices was none other than that group of monuments in the Forum, miscalled 1I the

tomb of Romulus WI or the 1" Lapis Niger "3. The so-called bases are in reality an altar

for burnt sacrifice, and the stele with its difficult inscription and its reference to a rex and

a calator would be the lex arae. The Regifugium of February 24th had, of course, nothing

to do with the driving out of the kings, but was probably an ancient festival of purification

where the King, taking upon himself the guilt of the people, fled from the altar. The

ceremonies of March 24th and May 24th are marked in the Calendar Q R C F, which

is an abbreviation for Q(uando) R(ex) C(omitiavit) F(as) 4, where we must understand

comiliavit to mean I has come into the Comitium after completing the sacrifice I 5; and

the whole abbreviation means that after the king has finished the performance of the

sacrifice and appeared in the Comitium, the religious character of the day changes and

it ceases to be NEFAS and becomes FAS.

But the activity of the King and the Queen along religious lines was not confined

to their functions as special priests of Janus, Juno and Vesta. They had important exe-

cutive functions as well. The whole organization of the state religion seems to have been

dependent upon the King. Even in the earliest period there seem to have existed side

by side the two great activities, which were afterwards carried on by the college of the

pontiffs and the college of augurs respectively. In the kingly period these two colleges

existed merely in the rudimentary form of advisors to the King, who was himself entirely

independent in his actions and in no wise bound by his councillors. Similarly the King

and the Queen together were responsible for the worship of Vesta, and the Queen was

assisted by the Vestal Virgins in the carrying out of the worship at the state hearth,

but the Vestals were merely her assistants, and she represented them all and was herself

in the power of her husband the King.

Then came the change. In place of this regal organization with its centralization of

power, there came the spirit of the Republic, with its suspicion of the one-man imperium.

How this all came about we do not know. Possibly, but not likely, the picturesque fiction

' The so-called agonium. Cp. OVID. F. 1, 318;

LYD. de Mens. 4, 1 (and see REITZENSTEIN, Poimandres,

p. 294); VARRO L. L. 6, 12; and in general W. FOWLER,

Rom. Fest. p. 282; WISSOWA, Rel. und Kult. Ed. 2,

p. 103.

2 SERV. A. 10, 228.

' Cp. CARTER, A. J. A. XIII (1909), pp. 19 ff.

' VARRO LL. Vl, 31 ff.: dies qui vocatur sic quando

rex comitiavit fas, etc.

a FESTUS, p. 259, 4.




of the wicked Tarquin is a reflection of the truth; possibly the change was a gradual

one, and the Decemvirate may have been a transition stage from Kingdom to Republic,

with the consuls of the pre-Decemvirate period themselves mere fictions. But eventually

the reorganization was made, and, so far as we can tell, its main outlines were as follows:

Doubtless the first impulse was to do away altogether with the King. The curse upon

the office should include the name as well, but here arose a difficulty which was all the

more real because it was typically Roman. It was a simple matter to establish the theory

that the IMPERIUM belonged to the aristocracy and that it had its seat in the bosom

of the Senate, and that the Senate could strip the King of every vestige of it, and loan

it out to individuals in small pieces. This could be and was done, with the consequences

that we shall see below. But there was one relationship which could in no wise be dis-

turbed: that of the King to Janus. Here it was not even possible to suppose for a

moment that any change would be welcome to the god. The whole essence of religious

feeling rendered such a consideration sacriligious. On such a matter it was not in the

province of the augurs to consult the god. It was unhesitatingly taken for granted as an

obvious and self-evident fact that the Rex and the Regina must live on forever both in

name and in function so far as their activities as special priests were concerned. The

Rex and the Regina must continue to make their sacrifice on the kalends of each month.

The Rex must continue to perform the ancient ceremonials in the Comitium on February

24th, March 24th and May 24th. To be sure he might perhaps be called Rex Sacrorum

from now on 1, but the Rex part must remain. It was the necessity of preserving the

name that created all the difficulty. There must be still a rex; he must be honoured

and respected. He must even be given the first place in the hierarchy of priests and

the place of honour at banquets 2. The position must be for life 3, and his person must

be sacrosanct 4. And yet he must not only be stripped of all political power but he must

be effectually prevented from ever recovering any of it. He must be the most honored

and the least powerful man in the state. He must be forbidden to hold any political

office and to exercise any position of command; and with all this was the sugar-sweet

casuistical explanation, - as King he had of course the highest office, and hence it would

not be fitting that he should have any lower one. It is little wonder that powerful

I This was actually in all subsequent time the of-

ficial form and is the only form found in the inscriptions,

cp. C' I. L. VI 2123; VI 2124; XIV 2413; and in

the Lex Julia Municipalis C. L. L. 1 206, 62. In familiar

language he was called Rex Sacrificulus, Liv. 2, 2, 1;

6, 41, 9; GELL. 1 0, 15, 21; FESTUS, P. 259; 293;

318. The expression in Liv. 9, 34, 12: rex sacrificiorum,

is merely individual; and Liv. 40, 42, 8, de rege sacrifico,

is doubtless to be emended into de rege sacrific(ut)o.

2 FESTUS, p. 185: ordo sacerdotum aestimatur deorum

maximus quisque. Maximus videtur Rex, dein Dialis, post

hunc Martialis, quarto loco Quirinalis, quinto Pontifex

Maximus. GELL. 10, 15, 21: Super flaminem Dialem in

convivio, nisi rex sacrificulus, haut quisquam alius ac-

cumbit. SERV. A. 2, 2: non enim licebat supra regem

Sacrificulum quemquam accumbere.

I DIONYS. HAL. IV, 74, 4.

4 SERV. A. 8, 646: quia occidi non poterat reli-

gione impediente: rex enim etiam sacrorum fuerat.




men did not seek this office. It is easily understandable that the possessor of even a mode-

rate degree of temporal power might desire to refuse this pinnacle of gilded nonentity.

There was a famous case of this hesitation in the year B. C. 180 , when a certain Lucius

Cornelius Dolabella, one of the commanders of the fleet (Duumvir navalis), who was des-

tined to protect the Adriatic coast from Ancona southwards, flatly refused to resign his

office and accept the position of Rex Sacrorum. Thereupon the Pontifex Maximus fined

him, and Dolabella appealed to the assembly of the tribes. The session of the assembly

was broken off by the appearance of an unlucky omen. Under the circumstances the

Pontiffs hesitated to compel him to accept office, and the second candidate on the list was

appointed in his stead. It is little wonder under these conditions that in B. C. 210 the

position was actually vacant for more than a year2. To add to the solitary grandeur of

his life, the Rex Sacrocrum was hedged about by ceremonial. On holidays he was not

only forbidden to work but in his presence all others were forbidden to work. There was

even a crier to warn men of his approach and to forbid them to work in his sight 3.

And yet he was withal so important that certain events were actually dated by his sacral

reign 4. There was one feature of the grandeur which had belonged to the real king.

He was not permitted to live in the WI King's House I (domus) Regia. This was a

common sense precautionary measure which was doubtless absolutely necessary at the be-

ginning. It arose from that extraordinary sense of the influence of localities which was so

characteristic 6f the ancient Romans and found its expression in the I Genius Loci 1' and

the various Fortuna concepts. The house which had been the King's kept its name, the

Regia, the King's house forever, but from now on it was the actual habitation of no one.

The Rex Sacrorum had an especial house of his own but it was not the Regia 5.

The Pontifex Maximus, the King's successor in the executive sphere, was not per-

mitted to inhabit the Regia, but was housed instead in the Domus Publica close by 6.

I Cp. Liv. 40, 42, 8 ff: de rege sacrifico subficiendo

in locum Cn. Corneli Dolabellae contentio inter C. Ser-

vilium pontificem maximum fuit et L. Cornelium Dola-

bellam duumvirum navalem, quem ut inauguraret pontifex

magistratu sese abdicare iubebat; recusantique id facere

ob eam rem multa duumviro dicta a pontifice, deque

ea, cum provocasset, certatum ad populum. Cum plures

iam tribus intro vocatae dicto esse audientem pontifici

duumvirum iuberent multamque remitti, si magistratu se

abdicasset; ultimum de caelo quod comitia turbaret in-

tervenit. religio inde fuit pontificibus inaugurandi Dola-

bellae. P. Cloelium Siculum inaugurarunt, qui secundo

loco nominatus erat.

2 Liv. 27, 6, 16: M. Marcius Rex Sacrorum mortuus

est, et M. Aemilius Papus Maximus curio; neque in

eorum locum sacerdotes eo anno suffecti.

3 MACROB. S. 1, 16, 9: adfirmabant autem sacer-

dotes pollui ferias, si indictis conceptisque opus aliquod

fieret, praeterea regem sacrorum flaminesque non licebat

videre feriis opus fieri, et ideo per praeconem denun-

tiabant, nequid tale ageretur et praecepti neglegens mul-

tabatur.

4 E. g. PLIN. N. If. 11, 186: L. Postumio L. f.

Albino rege sacrorum post CXXVI Olympiadem, cum

rex Pyrrhus ex Italia decessisset, cor in extis haruspices

inspicere coeperunt.

5 FESTUS, p. 293: (Via) sacra appellanda est a regia

ad domum regis sacrificuli.

6 On the Regia and the Domus Publica, cp. JORDAN,

Top. 1, 2, 426; F. M. NICHOLS, Archeologia, vol. 50,

pp. 227 ff., and Journal of the British and American Archae-

ological Society of Rome, vol. 1, No. 3, 1886-1887, pp.

87 ff. Servius is in error (A. 8, 363) when he says:

n domus --- in qua pontifex habitat, regia dicitur '.




The introduction of the Pontifex Maximus brings us to the discussion of the second

part of the readjustment. Thus far we have discussed the necessity of the preservation

of the King in at least a certain shadow of his former greatness, and we have seen how

this Rex Sacrorum was hedged about with such restrictions as tended to prevent his ever

regaining any of the civil power which the real king had once possessed. This reminis-

cent King of the Republic had no other functions than those particular acts of worship

which the gods, and especially Janus, had a right to receive at his hand. All the other

activities of the King were taken from him and divided among a large number of persons.

We are of course not concerned here with the civil and military functions but merely

with the executive life of the King as exercised along religious lines. As we have seen

above, one of the most primitive elements in the King's executive activity was his relation

to the Curiae. In so far as his acts in this connection had to do with the worship of

Janus, the Shadow King continued to perform them, but his function as presiding officer

ceased and the Curiae appointed their own head, in the person of a new official, the

Curio Maximus. It seems incorrect to speak of the King as having been himself the Curio

Maximus; more likely he was here as everywhere simply the Rex without other title,

the head of all the Curiae, in his own person the incarnation of them all. But now this

part of his task was given to a man occupying a newly created position, the Curio Max-

imus. The incumbent was at first a Patrician 1, but in 209 a Plebeian was elected for

the first time2.

Venerable as was the connection of the King with the Curiae, the most important

of his executive functions were in relation to the religion of the state. Here he was

the chief priest, assisted to be sure by a council of priests, but, as we have seen, acting

entirely independently of them. This part of the King's activities must be removed from

him at once. The council becomes now independent. It takes, as it were, into its own

bosom the power which the King had had, but the conservatism of religion immediately

asserts itself. They may take over the power, but it was not a case of taking it back for

they had not owned it originally, and so, though now they took it for a moment, they could

not keep it, and it must be delegated at once to one of their own number, to whom

was given the title of Pontifex Maximus. Thus was created the office of Pontifex Max-

imus, that man in whom were united the principal executive functions of the King.

The royal origin of the Pontifex is clearly seen in the aristocratic tradition attaching

I Liv. 3, 7, 6.

2 Liv. 27, 8, 1-3: Inter maiorum rerumn curas comitia

maximi curionis, cum in locum M. Aemili sacerdos crea-

retur, vetus excitaverunt certamen patriciis negantibus

C. Mamili Atelli, qui unus ex plebe petebat, habendam

rationem esse, quia nemo ante eum nisi ex patribus id

sacerdotium habuisset. tribuni appellati ad senatum rem

reiecerunt; senatus populi potestatem fecit: ita primus

ex plebe creatus maximus curio C. Mamilius Atellus.

On the Curio Maximus in general cp. BOTSFORD, Rom.

Assemblies, p. 10; KUBLER in P. W. IV, 1838.




to the office. At first he was not elected by the seventeen Tribes ' but was chosen by

the college itself 2, probably in the very earliest times on the basis of age 3. He was

like the King before him not merely the head of the college; he was himself the college.

It was he and not the college who appointed the Rex Sacrorum, the Flamines and the

Vestals and possessed even the right of compulsion 4. He had the right of fining the

Rex ' and the Flamines 6 and of compelling them to resign their office and he possessed

the power of life and death in the case of a vestal virgin guilty of incest 7. He held

office for life 8.

But there was another important side to the executive activity of the old King, his

functions as the head of the college of augurs. In a fashion similar to the solution

achieved by the Pontiffs, the Augurs solved this problem 9.

In our discussion of the Rex, consideration for the Regina has naturally fallen into

abeyance. In general she was treated very much as the King was. The name was

retained, with the addition of sacrorum, and she continued to perform the same priestly

functions as she had always done; but her executive work was taken from her. The

principle feature of this executive work was her connection with the Vestal Virgins.

1 The first example of election by the Tribes is in

B. C. 212, cp. Liv. 25, 5, 2.

2 WISSOWA, Rel. und Kult., Ed. 2, p. 508, 11,

points out that we have no real proof of this, but it

has usually and doubtless correctly been taken for granted.

3 The very name itself, Pontifex MAXIMUS, in-

dicates this, cp. the Vestalis MAXIMA and Ovid's

comment (Fasui, 4, 639): quae natu maxima virgo est.

' As an example of the compulsory appointment of

a Flamen Dialis (in order to help in the reformation of

a dissipated youth), cp. Liv. 27, 8, 4-6 n et flaminem Dialem

invitum inaugurari coegit P. Licinius pontifex Maximus

C. Valerium Flaccum - - - - Causam inaugurari coacti flaminis

libens reticuissem, ni ex mala fama in bonam vertisset.

Ob adulescentiam negligentem luxuriosamque C. Flaccus

flamen captus a P. Licinio pontifice maximo erat, L.

Flacco fratri germano cognatisque alis cb eadem vitia

invisus. Is, ut animum eius cura sacrorum et caerimo-

niarum cepit, ita repente exuit antiquos mores, ut nemo

tota iuventute haberetur prior nec probatior primoribus

patrum, suis pariter alienisque esset ".

5 Liv. 40, 42, 9, the case of Lucius Cornelius Do-

labella referred to above. The Pontifex fined him because

Dolabella, having been appointed Rex, refused to resign

his command in the navy.

6 In B. C. 189 the Pontifex Maximus P. Licinius

engaged in an altercation with the Flamen Quirinalis

Q. Fabius Pictor, in which the Pontiff came out victo-

rious, cp. Liv. 37, 51: Priusquam in provincias praetores

irent, certamen inter P. Licinium pontificem maximum

fuit et Q. Fabium Pictorem flaminem Quirinalem, quale

patrum memoria inter L. Metellum et Postumium Al-

binum fuerat. Consulem illum cum C. Lutatio collega

in Siciliam ad classem proficiscentem ad sacra retinuerat

Metellus, pontifex maximus; practorem hunc, ne in Sar-

diniam proficisceretur, P. Licinius tenuit, et in senatu et

ad populum magnis contentionibus certatum. ---- religio

ad postremum vicit.

/ E. g. Domitian's desire to bury Cornelia alive;

Cp. PLIN. Ep. 4, 11, 5 f.: Fremebat enim Domitianus aestua-

batque in ingenti invidia destitutus. Nam cum Corneliam,

Vestalium maximam, defodere vivam concupisset, ut qui

inlustrari saeculum suum eius modi exemplis arbitraretur,

pontificis maximi iure seu potius immanitate tyranni, Ii-

centia domini, reliquos pontifices non in Regiam sed in

Albanam villam convocavit.

8 Dio CASS. 49, 15, 3; 54, 15, 8; APPIAN B. C.

V, 131; SUETON. Aug. 31; and cp. WISSOWA, ReL und

Kult., Ed. 2, p. 495, 1.

9 Our data in regard to the Augurs are much more

incomplete. There can be little question that the College

created one of their number the augur maximus though

the actual title happens to occur only in two inscriptions

from Numidia, where it represents only a yearly office.

But the principle of seniority is characteristic of the

Augurs. Cp. the well known words of Cicero, De

Senect. 64: multa in collegio vostro praeclara sed

hoc ---- - in primis quod ut quisque aetate antecedit,

ita sententiae principatum tenet, neque solum honore

antecedentibus sed iis etiam, qui cum imperio sunt, maiores

natu augures anteponuntur.




Her place was now filled by the appointment of a Virgo Maxima (the doyenne of the

Vestals 1). Here again conservatism and logic had their perfect work. As the Regina

had been legally in the polestas of her husband, the Rex, so now in their new rela-

tionship the Virgo Maxima is in the polestas of the Pontifex Maximus 2,

Thus the religious organization of the Republic stepped forward into the future.

Old things had been done away, so far as old things could be done away with; and

all things had become new in so far as all things could become new. And when

the good citizens rested from their labours, and beheld their work and called it good,

they would indeed have been interested, had they been able to look down the centuries,

and see what the vicissitudes of these concepts of Rex and Pontifex Maximus were to

be, and how they would once again be united in one person, the Pontifex Maximus

of a new religion, the " Papa-Re "1 of new political conditions.

1 Cp. OVID. Fast. 4, 639: quae natu maxima virgo est.

2 The Virgo Maxima is not to be thought of as

the daughter, but rather as the wife of the Pontifex Max-

imus; cp. WIssowA, Rel. und Kull., Ed. 2, p. 509, 5;

JORDAN, Tempel der Vesta, p. 47 ff.; DRAGENDORFF, Rhein.

Mus. LI, 1896, 281 ff.; SANTINELLI, Riv. di Fil., XXXII,

1904, 63 f.

3



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